House Fly Resistance to Chemicals 1

Abstract

It is no doubt significant that housefly resistance to DDT was first recognized and reported in Europe, where DDT came into commercial use in 1944 and was used extensively by civil and military personnel in 1945. In 1947, Sacca and Missiroli attributed the failure of DDT to control flies in Italy to the presence of a variety of house fly which had become resistant to DDT. About the same time Wiesmann (1947) reported house fly resistance in Sweden. Two years later Keiding and Van Deurs (1949) in three short paragraphs summarized the course of events which was apparently common throughout Europe, as follows: “Already in 1946 there were some isolated complaints of failing effect, and in the summer of 1947 the fly control failed in a great many places.